Call to beware of scammers after elderly lady tricked into transferring money

Police

Published:10:53Thursday 07 September 2017

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Police in Lincolnshire have renewed calls for people to be on guard about phone scammers after a elderly lady was tricked into transferring money from her account.

The lady, from Boston, was victim to what is often called a ‘courier scam’, which sees offenders call up saying that they are calling from the bank’s fraud team and that an investigation is underway into members of staff at the branch.

The victim is told to transfer money to a different account for ‘safekeeping’, or have it collected in person by a courier, and they are warned not to tell anyone or it will jeopardise the investigation.

A genuine bank will never call a customer this way and we are asking people to ensure their vulnerable relatives and neighbours are aware of the scam.

Advice from Action Fraud to protect yourself and spot the signs includes:

- Your bank or the police will never call you to ask you to verify your personal details or PIN by phone or offer to pick up your card by courier. Hang up if you get a call like this.

- If you need to call your bank back to check, wait five minutes; fraudsters may stay on the line after you hang up. Alternatively, use a different line altogether to call your bank.

- Your debit or credit card is yours – don’t let a stranger take it off you. You should only ever have to hand it over at your bank. If it’s cancelled, you should destroy it yourself.

- Someone claiming to be from your bank or local police force calls you to tell you about fraudulent activity but is asking you for personal information or even your PIN to verify who you are.

- They’re offering you to call back so you can be sure they’re genuine, but when you try to return the call there’s no dial tone.

- They try to offer you peace of mind by having somebody pick up the card for you to save you the trouble of having to go to your bank or local police station.

Report any incidents to police on the non-emergency number 101 or 999 in an emergency.